Teen sentenced following five-month crime spree

Hey there, time traveller!This article was published 29/5/2014 (924 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON -- A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to five months in jail Thursday after trying to burn a police car and committing a series of break-ins.

The Birdtail Sioux First Nation teen was involved in a string of robberies beginning in the early hours of Sept. 7, 2013, when he and a 13-year-old boy smashed into a Miniota convenience store wearing bandanas and took off with several bottles of liquor before piling into a getaway van, Brandon provincial court heard.

The owners of the store rushed out after the alarm went off and caught a glimpse of the driver, a 22-year-old man, who was arrested shortly after. The two masked thieves got away.

Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup told court the 15-year-old was out for revenge with a "specific type of malice at the police" following the arrest by members of the Dakota Ojibway Police Service (DOPS).

Just days after the robbery, on Sept. 18, the teen and his 13-year-old baseball bat-wielding cousin poured gas on a DOPS cruiser in a failed attempt to set it ablaze.

When they were unsuccessful, they let the air out of two of the police car's tires.

"What would have happened if police caught them in the act?" asked Lonstrup, referring to the teen with a bat.

On Oct. 17, the 15-year-old and the same accomplice returned to the convenience store at 4 a.m. with another 15-year-old girl, again to steal an unknown amount of booze.

The teens are not being named to comply with the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

According to documents read aloud in court, the 15-year-old said he would do it again "because it was fun."

Lonstrup told court the convenience store and gas station have been terrorized by break and enters, costing owners between $15,000 and $20,000 over the last several years.

"The owners of that store, who are there for the benefit of the community, have suffered loss after loss after loss," Judge Margaret Wiebe said when handing down the sentence.

In the final incident of his five-month crime spree, the teen -- who had no criminal record prior to September 2013 -- broke into a home in the Birdtail Sioux area, again with a bat-wielding accomplice, demanding cash on Jan. 23.

When the woman in the home had no money to surrender, the duo took off with cigarettes and no one was harmed, including a small child at the home.

The teen received four months for the residential break and enter, one month for trying to burn the police car and two years' probation for his other crimes. The youth has been behind bars for the last four months. That time will be credited toward the sentence and he will be released in less than a month.